Man accused of rape after night of binge drinking

BATON ROUGE - Sheriff's deputies arrested a 20-year-old Baton Rouge man in connection with a rape from this past September which investigators said happened during a night of heavy underage drinking.

Deputies said Devin Kleinpeter raped an 18-year-old woman after both of them had been drinking heavily at a bar and Kleinpeter had smoked marijuana. Kleinpeter told detectives the sex was consensual.

Investigators said the victim came forward on Dec. 22 and told detectives the rape happened in the early morning hours of Sept. 29. According to detectives, the victim and her friend drank a bottle of vodka before going to a bar for 50 cent shots with other friends and Kleinpeter. The victim said she continued drinking heavily until the bar closed at 2 a.m. Kleinpeter told detectives he had been drinking beer and playing beer pong before going to the bar, and that he also had many shots and mixed drinks while at the bar.

After the bar closed the victim told investigators she, Kleinpeter, and their friends went back to an apartment. The victim said she passed out on the couch and later woke up to find Kleinpeter raping her. She said she told him to stop multiple times before she passed out again, but he refused. She said when she woke up the next morning, Kleinpeter was gone.

Detectives said when they interviewed Kleinpeter he told them he smoked marijuana at the apartment with some friends before he and the victim began talking. Kleinpeter said they later had consensual sex, and the victim never asked him to stop.

Investigators charged Kleinpeter with third-degree rape and booked him into the East Baton Rouge Parish jail on Saturday.